Title: Paint Your Office
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Peter Casey & David Lee
Air Date: November 5, 1987
Previous: The Crane Mutiny
Next: The Last Angry Mailman
"Paint Your Office" is the 6th episode of the sixth season of Cheers.
It seems that Norm's bar tab has risen to $837, and unfortunately for Norm the bar is now run by no-nonsense Rebecca Howe instead of his old buddy Sam. Rebecca shocks Norm, the rest of the gang, and the entire Western world by cutting Norm off. After everyone points out that Norm is a hard luck case, and currently unemployed (apparently having already lost the job he got in Season Five's "Norm's First Hurrah"), Rebecca reluctantly agrees to let Norm work off his debt by painting the office.
In the process of painting the office, Norm witnesses the aftermath of Rebecca's conversation with her boss and her unrequited crush, Evan Drake. When Norm enters Rebecca is dissolving in hysterical tears after Drake gave her a tongue-lashing over the disappointing revenue numbers for the bar. Norm expresses sympathy (reluctantly), and just like that, Rebecca has her first friend at Cheers.
Unfortunately Norm mentions something of this incident to Sam Malone, who decides that empathy and compassion are the way to get into Rebecca's pants.
The first mention of Norm having worked as a house painter in college, something that would be recalled in several future episodes as Norm tries out a new career. Rebecca's sister, referred to here only as "Miss San Diego", would pop up on the show late in Season 7.
Tropes:
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Rebecca tells Sam that she was born in San Diego. He says "California, huh?", and she scornfully responds "No, Kansas."
- Commonality Connection: While Sam is trying to get into Rebecca's pants, they bond over a dislike for a successful sibling, a nod to Sam's brother Derek.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: This episode starts humanizing Rebecca Howe, as not only do we see her Inelegant Blubbering for the first time, we find out that her father is a Navy captain and she has three successful siblings, and that she was "the fattest girl in high school."
- Formerly Fat: Rebecca accidentally reveals that she was the fattest girl in high school.
- The Ghost: This is the fourth mention of Evan Drake in the first six episodes and he still hasn't appeared onscreen yet. Drake would finally pop up in episode 6-10.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Rebecca reserves the most venom for her successful sister, making gagging motions when she mentions her. She'll eventually appear at the end of the next season.
- Inelegant Blubbering: The first instance of Rebecca's inelegant wailing, as she is sobbing and crying in a way very different from her Ice Queen persona after hanging up with Evan Drake.
- Series Continuity Error: A fairly minor and possibly explainable one, but this episode suggests that it's been an "awfully long time" since Norm painted anything (seeming to imply Norm hadn't done so since university), but that painting is something he enjoys. Norm painted Cliff's house approximately two years earlier in "The Triangle" and claimed to hate painting (and that Cliff knew he hated it). It is, of course, possible that Norm's feeling for painting changed over time. It's also possible two years could be interpreted as an "awfully long time" (or that Norm simply forgot about painting that time).
- Slip into Something More Comfortable: Subverted. After their little bit of friendly bonding, Rebecca says "I think I'd better change." Sam, thinking this trope is in play, goes into full seduction mode—putting on smooth jazz on the stereo, revealing the suit that's under his painter's overalls, whipping out the champagne bottle hidden in a paint can. Rebecca was changing to go to the gym.
- Work Off the Debt: Rebecca allows Norm to paint the office in order to settle up his tab. As Norm himself observes later, it was really just Rebecca being nice, since the office didn't need painting.
